


Wait For Me To Come Home

by twoshipstiedup



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, And many pop culture mentions, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Mush, M/M, More Fluff, New York City, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 05:20:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17718842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoshipstiedup/pseuds/twoshipstiedup
Summary: Some people meet in line at the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon, others use social media and technology to find their match. Sometimes, it's the old fashioned way through mutual friends at a dinner party.For Harry and Louis, it was a hot summer's day on a crime scene.





	Wait For Me To Come Home

Louis audibly groaned, rubbing at his eyes yet again in an attempt to wipe away the bad decision of one more drink from the night before. As soon as he hit the bed he had fallen into a happy, whiskey-induced slumber, which had been rudely interrupted by a five am phone call. Now here he was, less than an hour later, slightly hung over and irritable because it was already oppressively humid and way too fucking hot.

Don’t get him wrong, he loved New York in the golden hued fall, or on a beautiful blue, crisp winter day. Come April there was a literal spring in his step when the cherry blossoms bloomed in Central Park, but the sweltering, garbage-scented heat of the achingly long summer days were something that even after fifteen years, he would never get used to.

When Louis turned eighteen he made the decision to flee from his quiet, small town life in Doncaster, enrolling himself at NYU; a childhood dream driven by hours of movies and television shows that had made him certain the Big Apple was the place he needed to be. The change of pace was exciting and a complete one eighty from what he’d been used to, and after landing a part time job with the NYPD entering tickets, he had found his calling. There was something about the law that gave him a sense of purpose he had never felt before. He graduated at the top of his academy class, worked his ass off as a beat cop in the years that followed, and quickly moved up the ranks to become one of the youngest detectives in his precinct. He was currently assigned to the homicide unit, which was how he found himself frowning at yet another Chinatown bodega at the crack of down.

He pulled his sunglasses down from where they were haphazardly twisted into hair, nudging his partner Liam with his shoulder. “Where’s Niall? He called this in right?”

Liam nodded, mindlessly scratching the stubble on his chin as he assessed a group of power walking old ladies shooting them curious looks. “Yeah, but he wasn’t on duty yet, he just happened to be stumbling home from the bar and needed a Gatorade. Then boom. Dead body.”

Niall Horan was one of Louis’ best mates, along with his partner Liam Payne. They had all graduated in the same class, mostly following similar paths, though Niall had recently been promoted to Sergeant, something his family couldn’t stop celebrating as he came from a long line of police officers. He also had some deep Irish roots, which came with a family owned bar that was conveniently located down the street from the precinct.

Though maybe a little too convenient if Louis were being honest, they’ve all stumbled home in varying states of inebriation more often than not. 

Louis ran a hand through his already damp hair, cocking his hip to the side. “Why isn’t this scene secured, where the fuck is everybody?”

Liam clucked his tongue. “Awfully testy this morning,”

“Well one of the first bloody things you learn is that you don’t leave the scene,” Louis crumpled his third coffee cup of the day impatiently, “Someone find me the officers who responded to this call and get some fucking tape around this place!”

Liam sighed in resignation. “I guess that someone is me.” He spun around on his heel, heading back to the car to call out Louis’ demands on the radio.

While Liam waited for the response, Louis paced down the sidewalk, taking note of the outside of the store. There were no signs of forced entry, which meant it was probably one of the many twenty four hour bodegas scattered throughout the city. A flyer that was haphazardly taped to the window floated to the ground via a Chinese food laced breeze, which kind of felt strangely poetic. 

He pulled out his notepad, flipping to a clean page, when he paused his pen in the middle of it. He zeroed in on a lumbering, curly haired young man who was about to amble right into the bodega. He had earphones in and his eyes were cast down at his phone, not a care in the world that he was about to push Louis over the very small ledge he was teetering on.

He marched over to him and yanked the phone out of his hands, meeting his shocked green eyes with his own vividly annoyed ones. “Sir, can you please get the fuck off my crime scene,”

He jumped back with a yelp, pulling out the earphones that were no longer attached to his phone, a large hand touching to his flimsy t-shirt clad heart. “Crime scene?”

Louis tapped an impatient foot against the chalk stained concrete, motioning a hand at the store. “Yes, exactly how it sounds, so if you can kindly move the fuck along,”

He swallowed, his eyes widening as he nervously chewed his lip, “Is there…” he raised his eyebrows, looking at Louis expectantly.

“I don’t know what,” Louis circled a finger around his eyebrows, “this means, but I do know that you needed to get off of this block like, yesterday.”

“You don’t have to be rude you know,”

Louis steadied himself with a calming breath. This annoying, albeit extremely attractive guy was getting on his last (slightly) hung over nerve. “No, I don’t have to be rude, but I’m tired, I’m already sweating like a pig at six in the god damn morning, and…” he didn’t actually know where he was going with this rant, so he figured he’d steer it into unnecessary police mode. “Can I see your ID please?” He didn’t really need to see it per say, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him.

He pulled his wallet out hesitantly, chewing on his plump, pink lips again. God, it was much too early for this. “Am I in trouble?”

Louis traded him his phone for the wallet, cocking his eyebrow as he scanned over his license. “Do you always talk back to cops, Harry?” He noted the last name and address before passing it back to him. Brooklyn. Figures.

“I wouldn’t know, this is the first time this has ever happened to me,”

Louis took him in from behind his sunglasses, subtly dragging up his lanky body, which was clad in pristine white converse high tops, cut off jean shorts, the sheer white t-shirt and a pink bandana tied into his messy curls. Yeah. He was not surprised in the slightest. “And where are we headed this early in the morning?”

He shifted his backpack up onto his shoulder, pointing a ring adorned finger down the block. “On the way to work,”

“And where’s that?”

A slow smile spread across his face, a playful sparkle in his eye. “Doughnut Plant.”

Louis felt his eye twitch. He was going to remain unaffected, but lord he was a little shit. “Right, well, be careful when you’re in this neighborhood. And watch where you’re going.”

He blinked innocently. “In my defense, there’s nothing blocked off here,”

Louis snorted, “In your _defense_? Please don’t use your first year law student bullshit on me.”

He looked slightly exasperated now, rightly so. Louis had been on a tangent that had over stayed its welcome. “I won’t, considering I’m a third year film graduate,”

Louis pulled his sunglasses up, squinting at the hint of a smile quirking on his lips. He pushed them back down, crossing his arms over his chest. “I think we’re done here Mr. Styles.”

Harry then had the bloody nerve give him a full on cheeky smile as he walked away. “See you around officer.”

Louis wanted to shout ‘its detective!’ at his retreating figure, but really, he could somewhat contain himself when he needed to. He thinks.

He finally spotted two patrol officers wielding the long overdue yellow tape, and channeled his frustration towards them instead. “Jesus Christ, finally! Can you please get this secured so people stop traipsing into my crime scene?”

They quickly scrambled back to work, while Liam sauntered up to him with a chuckle, “Don’t forget that was us not that long ago, be nice.”

“It’s too hot to be nice.”

“What was with that guy?”

Louis grunted. What was with him indeed. “Nothing. Lost puppy.”

Liam scratched his head in confusion. “He lost his puppy?”

Louis blew out a ragged sigh, rubbing at his eyes again. It was going to be a long day. “No, _Liam_ , he was just…puppy like. Annoying and in the way,”

“Hmm. He was cute. Tisch?”

Louis turned to face him, genuinely curious as to why Liam was intent on being the one to annoy him now. “Are you writing a biography? I don’t know.”

Liam shrugged, patting his pocket absently for a pen. “He had a Tisch look about him. Maybe Zayn knows him,”

Louis could not be more mystified. The heat was surely getting to them. “I really haven’t a clue as to why it matters if your husband knows or does not know a Harry Styles, who I literally spoke to for two minutes, but can we please move on and do our jobs?”

“Whatever, he was cute. You could use some cute in your life.”

“Liam, please for the love of god,”

He held up his hands in surrender, “Alright, alright, but you owe me a drink later for being grumpy and rude.”

“Yeah at the rate these newbies are going we’ll be here until midnight,” he turned on his heel, clapping his hands. “Let’s go, let’s go, I’ve seen the New Year’s ball drop faster!”

…

Several hours later they finally got back to their somewhat air conditioned office and collapsed into their chairs, only to jump out of them moments later when their Captain hollered at them from inside his office.

“Detectives, can I see you in my office. Now,”

Liam shot a glare at Louis, rubbing a bottle of water on the back of his neck. “This better not be a complaint about you yelling at patrol officers again,”

“I was not _yelling._ I was merely giving direction in a louder voice so they could hear me!”

“Uh huh,”

They trudged into their boss’s office and gingerly pulled out the chairs in front of his desk. Louis leaned forward, propping his elbows up on his knees. “Before we begin Captain Corden, I just wanted to point out that I was cleared by internal investigations the last time around and—

He held up a hand, shaking his head. “No, Tomlinson, it’s nothing like that,” he leveled him with a stern look. “This time. However, you are being pulled from this case,”

Liam’s mouth dropped open while Louis sat up straight in his chair. “What? Why!”

He threw his pen down on this desk and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “The FBI is coming in to liaise on this case starting Monday morning; there’s reason to believe that it has ties to one of their drug trafficking cases. Detective Payne is staying on and you’re going to work on one of the many files you have pending on your desk. Do we have any more questions?”

Louis put up his hand, “Yes, I have one. Why me and not Liam?” he shot Liam an apologetic look, “No offence Liam.”

Liam closed his eyes and shook his head, indicating that is was time for Louis to shut up, which at this point in his life was impossible.

“Because Agent Grimshaw specifically asked for you not to be on it, now Detective, do you care to explain to me why that would be, or do you want to go back to your desk and do your job?”

“Umm, the job one sir, I’ll do that.”

Okay so maybe Louis had a thing for yelling at patrol officers _and_ FBI agents. It wasn’t one of his finer qualities.

“Thank you. That will be all.”

He ushered them out with the wave of a hand as he picked up the shrilling phone on his desk, sending them both slinking back to their respective corners.

Louis leaned back in his chair, shaking his head at the ceiling, “I always knew Nick Grimshaw would come back to haunt me.”

Liam sat on the edge of his desk, an amused smile tugging on his lips. “You did tell him to fuck off a record amount of times in the very short time he was here,”

“Yeah well, he’s arrogant. Plus, they love coming in here and taking all the credit for our cases.”

Liam snorted, rolling his eyes. “That’s not entirely true,”

“It’s somewhat true.”

Liam got up to head back over to his desk, spinning around in a circle trying to recall where he put his computer. “Whatever your personal feelings may be, our end goal is all the same,”

Louis threw a paperclip in his general direction, missing entirely. “Ugh Liam, must you always be so practical?” He popped the lid of his lap top open to switch it on, drumming his fingers against the chipped wood of the ancient relic that he called a desk. “I guess we’re free for those drinks tonight after all,”

Liam perked up from underneath his desk, holding his lap top triumphantly. “That’s true, forensics won’t have anything ready for me until tomorrow afternoon at the latest, and I can’t do anything with it until Monday anyways,” he rubbed his hands together with a grin. “Holy shit, am I actually going to see my husband at a reasonable hour?”

“Consider it an early birthday gift.”

“I honestly can’t remember the last time he’s seen a showered and dressed Liam,” Louis grimaced, wrinkling his nose, with Liam mimicking him seconds later. “Yeah that sounded a lot weirder than I meant it to. Do you want to text Niall?”

Louis nodded, plucking his phone out of his crumpled shirt pocket. “Yup, on it. And then I plan on doing the bare minimum for the next couple of hours,”

“Detective,”

Louis whipped around in his chair, sending a few loose papers flying off his desk. “Yes Captain?”

“How would you feel about doing the bare minimum in the file room?”

Louis ignored Liam’s snigger, shaking his head adamantly. “I would not feel good about that, sir,”

“That’s what I thought.” He rapped a knuckle on his doorframe, nodding towards Louis’ computer, “And I want an update on your pending files emailed to me by five.”

“Yes sir.”

Louis reached down to pick up his wayward papers, holding up a middle finger to Liam.

“I didn’t even say anything!" 

***

Harry wiped down the counter for what was probably the twentieth time that afternoon. He had a habit of cleaning excessively when he had something on his mind. Or someone.

“Harry, the varnish is going to come off soon. I think it’s clean,”

He shook the cloth out and folded it into a neat square, huffing as he faced his manager (and good friend) Ed. “He was just so rude, you know?”

Ed leaned on the counter, resting his chin in his palm. “We’re still on this?”

Harry placed his hands on his hips, shooting him an indignant look. “Yes, Ed, we are. It was traumatizing,”

“Which part, being dead body adjacent or being ridiculed by a little British dude, because let’s face it, the latter is kind of your thing.”

“Heyyyy,”

Ed shook his head and eased back up, moving over to the display case to pull out the few remaining donuts. “I didn’t say it was a good thing, I just said it was a thing.”

Harry bit his lip, sliding over to the other side of the case to help Ed unload the last of the baked goods before they closed up. It was true, after all he did meet Ed when he had been going through an exceptionally bad break up his first year at Tisch, and he had definitely seen one too many in their days as friends. And facts were facts; the majority of them had been British.

Ed closed the case back up and turned to Harry, reaching out to hold him by his shoulders. He squeezed lightly, giving him a reassuring smile. “Listen, I’m sorry you had a rough morning, I shouldn’t make light of it. Let’s go have a drink and shake it off, alright?”

“I don’t know, I think I’m just going to head home. I’m kind of tired and I should work on some of that editing I’ve been putting off,”

Ed sighed, steeling Harry with a determined look in his eye. “Harry, I say this with nothing but love, but you need to get out of the fucking house man. It’s been a year since Darren and that sucked, a lot, and I will still kick him if I ever see him again. But I think what you actually need is a big dick. All up inside of you,”

“Ed, I love you too, but please do not say those words in unison ever again.”

“Too descriptive?”

Harry pinched his fingers together with a smile. “A lil’ bit, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

Ed untied his apron, tossing it onto the counter. “So drinks then? I think we should go to Whiskey Tavern, they have this spiked iced tea that I’ve been craving all week,”

“Where’s that?”

“Not that far actually, it’s in Chinatown,” Ed scratched through the scruff on his chin, contemplating. “Though to be honest, it’s probably full of straight dudes,”

Harry laughed, removing his own apron. “That’s fine, I don’t know that I need to start today and I’m not dressed for that anyways,”

Ed waved him off, “Oh stop, you always look cute.”

“Edward, you are quite the confidence booster.”

“I do strive to be the king of complements. Happy wife, happy life, as they say.”

Harry shook a fist in the air, “Damn you Cherry, you’re the only thing standing in the way of our true love." 

Ed nudged his shoulder against Harry’s, “Nah, she said if anything happens to her we should definitely get married.”

Harry snorted, playfully pushing him away. “I’m touched, but I hate to break it to you, you’re not my type.”

He glanced down at his cargo shorts and skate shoes with a nod, “That’s fair.” He swung a set of keys around his finger, nodding towards the door. “Alright cutie, let’s go find some straight guys that you can hit on, they’ll never know the difference anyways.”

Harry laughed, an easy smile lightning up his face. “You’re crazy.”

“Yeah but I’m fun too,” he pat a hand on Harry’s back and guided him towards the door.

***

“Holy shit, Niall? Who is this man? He looks like my husband but that can’t be?” Zayn clutched onto Niall’s shoulders in dramatic fashion as Louis and Liam made their way up to the table they had occupied in the middle of the bustling bar. “This man is wearing a dress shirt and it’s barely seven o clock, my husband usually only exists after midnight in a worn out Batman T-shirt,”

Louis hopped onto a stool, sticking his tongue out, “Gross, can you creative write some pants onto Liam in that scenario, I don’t need that image in my mind.”

Niall nodded as he watched them share a long, much too lingering kiss. “Agreed. And listen, I know we’ve all had sex in here—

Louis held up the straw that had been discarded from Niall’s rum and coke. “I’ve never had sex in here,”

Niall narrowed his eyes at him. “You sure about that, captain blow job?”

Louis thought about that briefly. Dammit. “I’m so happy you’re the only one who remembers my early twenties,”

Niall rolled his eyes, popping an ice cube in his mouth to crunch on, “Anyways, no sex in the bar. We’re old now.”

Zayn finally pulled away from where he was nuzzling Liam’s neck, resting a possessive palm on his hip. “Chill out man, can I please just enjoy the fact that I’m seeing my beautiful husband in semi daylight hours?”

Niall pointed at him accusingly. “See, it’s the semi in that sentence that’s throwing me,”

Louis clapped his hands together to momentarily stop their bickering. “Can you all shut up and can we please get some drinks?”

“Yeah yeah, lemme wave Sam down, I have a tab going,”

Louis gave the back of Niall’s head a confused look. “Didn’t you work today?”

“Yeah,”

“For how long?”

Niall turned around briefly to shoot him a smirk. “Long enough.”

While Niall started naming off their orders, Louis let his eyes wander over to the entrance, watching a stream of people push through to escape the muggy evening and cool off with a frosty pint or two. He faltered when he landed smack dab on a familiar looking headband. What the—

Zayn turned in his seat, his eyes lighting up. “Harry!”

Louis watched the recognition spread over his face, a bright smile popping the dimples in his cheeks as he made his way over to them. Louis was suddenly bombarded with curls, twinkling eyes and long, tanned legs poking out of those ridiculous jean shorts. It was a lot to concentrate on while also having to tune out Liam’s smug ‘I told you so’. 

“Mr. Malik! How are you?”

“I’m pretty good if I do say so myself. What brings you out this way?”

“Ed and I,” he pointed to the stalky red headed guy behind him who waved with a friendly smile, “We just got off work, so you know, Friday drinks and all that,” he swallowed, nervously flicking his eyes at Louis. “And umm, hello again officer.”

Zayn’s gave them both a look of surprise. “Oh, do you know Louis?”

Louis could sense Niall’s stupid inquisitive eyebrows rising behind him. He twirled his pint glass in between his fingers, nodding slowly, “He does in fact. He compromised my crime scene this morning.”

Ed snorted out a loud laugh as Harry’s jaw fell open in shocked horror. “No, I didn’t, I swear that’s not what happened,”

Liam reached over and flicked Louis’ ear, “Oh my god Lou, quit being a dick,” he offered his hand out to Harry in greeting. “Hi I’m Liam, Zayn’s husband,” Harry shook his hand, though he was still in a bit of a state. “Besides, Louis’ not even on that case anymore, no harm done.”

Louis dragged his eyeballs away from where Ed had just touched Harry’s lower back to indicate he was going to get drinks to glare at Liam.

“Liam, _shut up_ ,”

Zayn frowned, bumping Liam’s shoulder. “Babe, what’s going on, did you really get pulled?”

Louis shook his head. “Nope. Just me.”

Harry blanched, fidgeting with the ring on his middle finger. “It wasn’t because of me, was it?”

Louis sighed inwardly. If there was one thing he couldn’t take, it was beautiful men looking at him with puppy dog eyes. “Harry, no, absolutely not, I was only joking. But believe me I would gladly blame you over the bureaucracy of the FBI any day,” he pat his arm passing him a shot, “and, it’s detective, by the way.”

Harry wrapped delicate fingers around the glass, the pale glittery nail polish on his fingertips shining against the dim lighting. “Great, cheers to me being a complete and utter idiot today,” he downed the shot with a cough, giving the table a weak smile. “Thank you for the shot officers, fuck, I mean detectives! I’m just gonna,” he thumbed over his shoulder mumbling as he backed away, “Bye Mr. Malik.”

He hurried over to the crowded corner to meet his friend, Louis’ eyes following him as he blew out a frustrated breath. “Was him saying Mr. Malik weirdly hot?”

Niall nodded, “Kinda, yeah.” He smacked Louis on the back of the head, pushing another shot in front of him. “And what the fuck is wrong with you, why didn’t you ask him to stay?”

“Uh, because he’s a child and I briefly interrogated him today?”

Zayn rolled his eyes, tossing a lime at him. “He’s a graduate student, he’s twenty six.”

Liam passed Zayn another lime with a nod, “He’s also from California,”

Louis lifted up the menu, scanning the sticky tabletop. “Was that written on the table or something?”

“No dummy, I checked. You know, just in case,”

“Just in case what?”

Niall smacked him again. “Get with it detective, sex!”

Louis side eyed him in disbelief. “Didn’t you just finish telling us we’re in our thirties?”

“Yeah but he’s not. When in Rome, right?” He pointed to the washroom in the back that they all were much too familiar with, “I’ll even lift the sex ban for you.”

“You guys are way too invested in this.”

Zayn chewed on his straw, wiggling his eyebrows. “You know, he’s made some pretty ‘artsy’ movies, I bet he’s into some crazy shit,”

“He’s wearing cut off jean shorts circa nineteen eighty seven, how wild could he possibly be.” However, Louis thinking they were inexcusably hot was another story all together.

“That’s what we’re saying, go and find out,”

Louis hunched his shoulders forward, leaning over to take a long sip of his new, fruity drink. “Leave me alone, let me drink and wallow in my FBI funk in peace.”

Niall finally admitted defeat. “Fine, whatever. The sex bans back up,”

Zayn and Liam blinked innocently. “Even for us?”

“Especially for you two, go home to your swanky apartment and do that shit.”

Liam checked his watch. “We will, but like, in an hour.”

“Cool, let’s get another round,”

Louis got up to order, because he was going to need about six more drinks to drown out the words ‘crazy shit’

***

Harry slid onto the stool, rubbing at his temples. “Oh my god,”

“What happened?”

Harry shook his head, staring down at the table. “I’m an idiot.”

Ed shrugged, taking a sip of his iced tea. “You’re not. It’s fine.”

Harry finally looked up from where he was trying to telepathically burn a hole into the table so he could fall into it and quietly die of embarrassment. “No, but like, I called him officer...twice!”

“So?”

“He’s a detective! There’s totally a difference!”

Ed paused on his next sip long enough to fondly pat Harry’s cheek, “You watch way too much CSI man.”

“Criminal Minds actually,” he pouted around his sip of beer, peering at Ed. “You don’t think I’m trouble do you?”

“Yeah, but only because you’re attracted to a cop, that can’t be good.”

Harry bounced up in his seat. “No I’m not!”

“Dude, I have eyeballs, he totally looks like McDreamy,”

Harry crossed his arms defiantly, cocking up an eyebrow. “Edward, what did I tell you?”

“Sorry, sorry, I forgot we don’t speak of McDreamy after the accident. But, I’m not wrong,”

Harry felt his cheeks warm up as he stole a glance at Louis’ table. “Fine, he’s ruggedly handsome. But he’s also probably married with kids or something. Can we just drink and forget this day of embarrassing events ever happened?”

“Sure cutie." 

...

As it turned out, they only ended up lasting for two more drinks before Ed was summoned by Cherry to get home and deal with a cat related emergency.

Harry didn’t ask any further questions as he waved him off in a cab, and frankly he was kind of relived to go home and collapse into bed after the day he had.

He could feel the exhaustion seeping into his bones as he contemplated taking an Uber home, when he heard the clearing of a throat behind him.

“Done for the night?”

Harry sucked in a breath. Shit. Act cool. For once. He slowly turned on his heel, slapping on a tiny smile. “Yeah, Ed had to head back home to the wife,”

“Ah.” Harry wondered if he knew just how unnerving that one word sounded coming out of his mouth. And then he surprised him with the next few. “Are you taking the subway home?”

Harry scratched behind his ear, slightly confused, “Uh, yeah?”

“Do you mind if I walk with you?”

Harry thinks his brain might have imploded. “Oh... why?”

Louis laughed, waving a hand out at their surroundings, “Because it’s late and this neighborhood isn’t the safest. So, I’m walking with you.”

“It’s nine thirty,” Harry glanced at him suspiciously as he started to head down the block. “But, I’ll allow it. If you need to go this way that is,”

Louis tapped a finger against his lips, hiding his smile. “I’m sort of on the way,”

“Where’s sort of?”

“Tribeca.”

“Wow, that’s fancy.” Louis looked amused while Harry’s mind was reeling from this information. “And, that’s definitely not on the way,”

“It’s fine, I’ll catch a cab.”

They stopped outside of the subway station, Harry shoving his hands in his pockets so he did not reach out and octopus himself around Louis. Yes, okay sleep. He needed it. “I’m sorry again for today, I’m a bit spacey in the mornings. I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble,”

“No Harry, really, I’m sorry for being a dick. Both times. I was out of line.”

“It must be a bit annoying getting your cases taken away,” Harry sent him wary smile, “But the FBI, that’s cool right?”

“That’s one word for them for sure,” Louis poked the toe of his high top with the tip of his shiny dress shoe. “I’ll stop there though, I don’t want to ruin Criminal Minds for you.”

Harry’s eyes lit up with interest. “Do you think that’ll send someone who looks like Shemar Moore?”

Louis let out a cackle that made his eyes crinkle at the sides. “We could never be that lucky.”

Harry felt victorious getting that laugh out of him. He rocked forward onto his toes, because apparently his body really wanted to hug him. He refrained. “Thanks for walking me.”

“You’re welcome. Actually...here,” Louis pulled out his wallet and handed him a business card. “If you wouldn’t mind texting me that you got home safe? I just...I’d appreciate it.”

Harry was really glad it was dark so Louis did not see the shade of red he could feel himself turning. “Oh, sure yeah. Thank you again...Detective.”

Louis shook his head with a smile, holding up his hand. “See you, Harry.”

Harry shoved the card in his pocket, feeling his heart flutter as he made his way down the steps, floating dreamily from the platform into the subway car, and then somehow floating dreamily all the way home.

He sat on his bed and kicked off his shoes, staring down at the card again, twisting it around in his fingers. He chewed on his thumb nail for another minute, before grabbing his phone off the nightstand and plugging in Louis’ number.

He knew that Louis was just being nice, after all it was his job to worry about the safety of others, but he allowed himself a little spark of hope that maybe Louis gave him the card because he found him wildly attractive too.

Anyways.

He sent off a smiley face and a thumbs up, deciding to keep it simple, and jumped when his phone vibrated less than a minute later.

\- Thank you. Be safe Harry

He fell back against the pillows and closed his eyes with a serene smile.

...

And maybe, just maybe he dreamt about a dark haired, blue eyed doctor that strangely looked like Louis.

***

Louis stalked down the hallway, daring himself not to look at his phone again. He’d only checked Harry’s message a dozen or so times, trying to read between the smiley face and thumbs up lines.

Sure, he’d acted nonchalant about it to his friends but truthfully Harry had sparked Louis’ interest the moment he had the nerve to talk back to him and the fascination was only deepened after watching the various adorable faces he made while talking to his red headed pal last night. Yes, Louis had been spying on him, so what.  

So when he saw him standing outside the bar friendless, he made the executive decision to ditch his own and find a way to give Harry his number.

He knew that he would drive himself crazy over whether Harry’s emojis meant he’d text him again or not, which is why he decided to distract himself with work since he allegedly had so much of it pending.

He pushed the office door open, throwing his bag onto his desk, and stopped short when Liam quickly flung the Vogue magazine he was reading onto his desk. “What are you doing here?”

Louis leaned against a file cabinet, tucking his hands into his pockets. “I don’t have a life. What’s your excuse?”

Liam stretched his arms over his head, stifling a yawn. “Zayn was up early. I’m just killing some time before I meet him again,”

Louis’ eyebrows shot up towards the ceiling. “Zayn was up before eight on a Saturday?”

“He volunteers at a senior’s center two Saturdays a month, teaching them art and stuff. Trust me, no one’s been more surprised than me that he has been able to roll out of bed before ten,”

Louis clutched at his heart, “Aww Zaynie. That’s sweet.”

“That’s my hubby, he’s a big old softie.”

Louis wandered over to the fridge, wrinkling his nose at well, nothing. “Why don’t we have any food here?”

“There’s barely edible food here during the week, what did you expect?”

He closed the fridge with a grunt. Louis was starving. But, he was also formulating a plan. “I’m gonna go grab something, do you want anything?

“Ooh get me a green smoothie,”

Louis shot him a look as he shoved some money into the pocket of his sweat shorts. “It’s a thousand degrees outside, it’ll be soup by the time I get back. Pick something else for Christ’s sake.”

“Fine, get a parfait or something that doesn’t have a too many calories, we’re having nachos later!”

Louis shook his head as he headed back out the door, “You’re so weird Liam.”

...

And now here Louis was staring up at the ‘Doughnut Plant’ sign with a sigh. Desperate times and all that.

He tugged on the door and for some reason tip toed over to the display case, as if being quiet would make it less obvious he was here with ulterior motives.

While he took his time pondering how many glazed donuts would be too many to eat in one sitting, he completely missed seeing the friendly looking red head from the previous evening’s adventures who was now watching him curiously.

“Hello there,”

Louis snapped back to the reality where he was supposed to be getting Liam yogurt and berries, but was instead settling for something he deemed a somewhat acceptable replacement.

“Hi. Is pistachio healthy?”

Ed (as Louis remembered despite old age causing him to forget most people’s names) drummed his fingers on the counter, tipping his head to the side. “Theoretically? Yes. In a donut? No. However, metaphorically? Donuts make your heart happy. So, hypothetically? Yes.”

Louis’ eyes widened, a startled laugh leaving his lips, “Wow. That’s quite a sell.”

He shrugged, “I do what I can.” He pulled out a cardboard box and lined it with wax paper, opening the door of the display case. “So, any other flavors, besides this one and the Harry flavored kind?”

Louis bumped a fist against his chest as he choked on a response, meeting Ed’s bemused eyes. “Alright, so it’s still my turn? Harry, in theory, is a cupcake. But he fancies himself a sprinkled donut from time to time,”

“Umm.” Louis tried to search for any other words, but this donut shop Dalai Lama was spouting off way too many metaphors for him to keep up with.

“It’s okay McDreamy, I get it. Those dimples and curls have rendered a few people speechless,”

“Are you running a donut shop or a dating service?”

As if to prove a point, Ed plucked out a few donuts, placing them neatly in the box. “I’m an equal opportunist, what can I say. I’m just trying to help my poor, helpless coworker out. He’s honestly really fucking bad at this,”

“This being?”

“Picking up men. He’s prone to British assholes, and so far you fall into one of those categories and I’d really love for it not to be both.” He tapped the box shut, leaning his hands on the counter. “Now, tell me why I should hand over these donuts and Harry’s hand in-dating detective,”

Louis bit his lip, unsure how on how to answer now. “I really just came for the donuts.”

Ed remained unfazed. “I doubt that. Something tells me your partner actually wanted a smoothie,”

He shook his head in disbelief. Who was this guy? “Do you want a job?”

“Nah, I’m partial to the dough boy life.”

He couldn’t blame Ed for wanting to protect his friend. Louis himself was ready to put a few distant relatives in jail for being assholes to someone as sweet as Harry. “Fine. I gave Harry my card last night, we texted, and I want to text him again and ask him out. But I don’t know if I should. But, really I want to,” he then decided to offer something up to sweeten the deal. “And if for some reason I am ever an asshole to Harry, I will personally invite you to my office to punch me in the face.”

Ed pursed out his lips, impressed. “Very bold. I’m into it.”

“You’d probably have to get in line, work related assholery cannot be helped.”

“Alright, since I think I kinda like you, here are the deets - Harry will be at school until around seven tonight so, if you happen to be in the area, he religiously goes for pizza at the hole in the wall across the street.”

“You sound quite certain of this,”

“Trust me, he’ll be there. He’s a creature of habit.” He finally slid the box of donuts across the counter, a devilish glint in his eye. “And I do say this with the upmost respect to you and him, but what he really needs is a big dick inside of him. If you can help with that.”

Louis coughed again, but nodded slowly. He was only human. “I’ll...do my best.”

Ed grinned. “Great! That’ll be $15.75.”

Louis passed his money over, earning a wink as Ed handed him back his change.

“The advice was free.”

...

Louis placed the donuts on his desk, going over Ed’s words again in his head. He tried to steer away from the ‘dick’ and ‘inside of him’ parts, but it was hard. No pun intended.

“Where’s my parfait?”

“Liam, please stop saying that word and eat a fucking donut,” he shoved the box over to him, rubbing at his eyes again. He really needed to start wearing his glasses.

“Mother of god, is this pistachio? It’s delicious,”

Louis drowned out his chewing and moaning, focusing on his conversation with Ed once more. He turned his head to Liam, twisting his lips to the side in thought. “Who’s McDreamy?”

Liam swallowed around a chunk of donut, wiping a stray pistachio off the side of his mouth. “You mean the guy from Grey’s Anatomy?”

Louis spun around in his chair, plugging the name into the Google search bar on his computer. Liam came to stand behind him, pointing his finger at the screen. “There that’s him, Patrick Dempsey,”

“I look like him?”

Liam shrugged, leaning forward to inspect the picture closer, but nodded at the one next to it instead. “Am I McSteamy then?”

Louis clicked on the picture to enlarge it, snorting out a laugh in response. “What? No. You do not look like this guy,”

“That _guy_ is Eric Dane. He was in Burlesque,”

Louis turned in his chair again, facing a now defiant looking Liam. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing, it’s just a great movie.” Liam buffed his fingernails against his chest, glancing at them nonchalantly. “Besides, I’ve been told I look like Beckham,”

Louis threw his head back, howling with laughter, “By who, Zayn?! What he calls you in bed doesn’t count my friend,”

“Who’s calling you McDreamy then, hmm?”

“What are either of you doing here?”

They both widened their eyes at each other, Louis jumping up from his chair to stand next to Liam like they were just caught with their hand in the candy jar, instead of putting in extra hours at their jobs. Not that they had gotten any work done yet.

“Hey Captain,”

He shook his head as he passed them, only turning to face them when he got to his office door. “What part of ‘send me an email by five’ yesterday did we not understand detective?”

“I did sir, did you not get it?”

He ignored Louis, focusing on Liam now. “And you? Starting on Monday, did that not compute either?”

Liam scratched his head. “I think it did, yes?”

Captain Corden just stared at them. For what felt like a full five minutes. “That means… Go. Home.”

They scrambled to pick up their bags, while Liam whispered ‘grab the donuts!’ frantically. He gave the captain a salute and a frazzled smile. “Thank you sir, you don’t have to tell me twice,”

Liam scuttled out the door, while Louis was left juggling the donuts and his laptop, “Right, okay, see you Monday then.”

“Louis,”

That had him halting in his tracks. He almost never addressed them by their first names.

“Sir?”

“You absolutely do not look like McDreamy,”

Rude.

“See you Monday." 

...

Liam at least saved his obnoxious laughter until they made it outside, which was promptly met with Louis shoving a donut in his mouth to shut him up.

He smiled around it, pulling a hunk of it off with his teeth. “What’s the plan for the evening,” he mumbled through layers of yeast and sprinkles.

Louis slipped his bag onto his shoulder as he racked his brain for the exact opposite of what he was actually going to do. “Oh, I’ll probably just Netflix and chill, the chill part being code for cranking my air conditioning up to the maximum arctic temperature.”

He thought that was a great cover for his casual pizza parlor stalking. No big deal.

Liam none the wiser and on his way to a sugar induced coma, just smiled. “Cool. Well, have fun, and I’ll see you Monday. Thanks for the donuts!”

“You too man, give Zayn a kiss for me.”

“Will do.”

Louis watched him jog over to his truck and finally blew out the lying breath he was holding.

“Onward solider, you’ve got an outfit to pick out that will impress a gorgeous film student.”

Louis shook his head at himself, wondering, what would McDreamy do?

***

Harry waved goodbye to his classmate Renee as he leaned his shoulder against the door of his trusty old pizza place. They had been working on an extracurricular film editing project for the last two months, which given their workload, Harry was beginning to think it was more about giving freebies to people who claimed they were too into their own ‘artistic headspace’ to be able to finish it themselves.

However, it gave Harry an excuse as to why he couldn’t make Saturday night plans which kept him out of the dating troubles of his past. While his mind was on that topic, he resisted the urge to pull out his phone and stare at Louis’ message again, and stared at real life Louis instead.

Wait, what?

Harry quickly checked himself out in the window, hoping the two blocks he walked hadn’t caused his hair to form what he liked to call the ‘Queen Elizabeth’, and yes, it was doing exactly that because of course it would right now. He shoved his sunglasses into it, hoping they would magically style it for him and thanked his lucky stars he was wearing all black today as he felt a trickle of sweat slide down his chest defiantly.

He made his way over to the table Louis was sitting at, his brow furrowed in concentration on whatever was on his phone that was more interesting than Harry standing there. “Detective?”

And the thing was, when he looked up at Harry with those vibrant blue eyes and traces of silvery stubble, it was just really unfair. “Harry, hey!”

“Hey yourself,” Harry glanced at his jeans and band t-shirt, noting he was considerably dressed down from yesterday. “What you doing here?” He shook his head, correcting himself, “Sorry, that sounded kind of rude but like…what are you doing here?”

Louis put his phone down on top of an overflowing folder, sitting back in his chair with a grin. “I was in the area for work. And, nice to see you too,”

Harry felt his cheeks heat up as he sputtered out a response. “No! I just meant, why stay here and have crappy pizza when you could go closer to home and have you know, better pizza,”

“Maybe I like crappy pizza,” he cocked his head to the side, inspecting Harry from head to toe in a way that made him shiver inwardly. “Do you usually have class on Saturdays? Isn’t it summer break?”

Harry didn’t know why he cared, but he would give him the boring details if that meant he got to talk to him for a bit longer. “Oh yeah, it is, but I’m working on some extra credit projects,”

“Ah, I see.” He nodded towards the chair in front of Harry. “Do you want to join me? I haven’t ordered yet, and seeing as you’re the expert on crappy pizza, perhaps you can recommend something?”

Harry gave him a smile in lieu of an answer and reached for the chair, briefly hesitating, “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“I wouldn’t be asking otherwise,” he stood up and pulled out his wallet, plucking a couple of bills out of it. “What are you in the mood for?”

Harry frowned, fumbling for his own wallet. “You don’t have to pay, just a sec— he froze at the feel of Louis’ calloused fingers resting on top of his wrist.

“Harry, please put that away and let me buy you some crappy pizza.”

“You don’t have to do that,”

“I know.” He seemed quite firm on this stance judging from the eyebrows he was giving Harry, as if to dare him to argue again.

Harry sighed and decided to let it go. He clearly wasn’t going to win this debate. “The pepperoni and jalapenos is probably the best out of all of them,”

“Done. Do you want a beer?”

“Umm sure, thanks.” Harry watched him wander over to the counter to order, and wondered what his intention was here. Was he just being nice? Was he attracted to Harry? Was this a pseudo date? Was he aware that the way the setting sun hit his side profile made Harry want to die a little bit inside? He shook out of his thoughts when Louis was back at the table with a numbered placard and two bottles of Stella. He tipped the lid towards him, before bringing it up to his lips. “Cheers.”

Louis lifted his frosty bottle up with a smile, “Cheers. And thank you for the company.”

Harry shuffled his chair closer to the table and took another sip of his beer, appreciating the way the amber liquid was cooling down his insides, because the way Louis was looking at him with those inquisitive eyes was too much for him to handle on an empty stomach. He searched his lightheaded brain for questions, settling for the obvious. “How was work?”

Louis briefly looked confused but it passed by just as quickly. “Oh, pretty boring mostly, we were just getting some things prepared for the FBI on Monday,”

“Right, the big bad FBI,” Harry mused.

Louis smiled, shaking his head with a laugh, “They do think they’re cooler than us.”

“Sounds very similar to high school,”

“It basically is, just somehow with more testosterone.” Louis directed his attention to their server, trading off the placard for the tray of steaming pizza, “This looks amazing, thanks so much.” He offered Harry a piece first, which made him think that maybe, they kind of were on a date. Louis sampled a piece of his own, wiping his mouth down after with a slow nod. “I have to say, that is some pretty excellent crappy pizza,”

“I’m glad you approve,” Harry brought a slice up to his mouth, silently reminding himself not to go in tongue first like he usually did. Though that was hard to do being around someone who looked like Louis. “Plus, it’s great on a student budget. It’s gotten me through a lot of tough times.”

“Yes, I remember those days all too well,” Louis’ eyes darted around the room, before focusing in on Harry again. Harry had noticed that he did that a lot, like he was still in partial cop mode, on guard and aware of his surroundings, but still managing to give Harry all of his attention. Harry probably shouldn’t have been as turned on as he was by this, but after Ed’s revelation that he’s been in a dry spell for a year, it was way beyond his control. He did catch Louis staring at his lips this time around, which he was going to allow himself to feel smug about. “So, I know you’re in film school, am I looking at the next Martin Scorsese?”

Harry chuckled at that. “Yeah, not quite. I interned at SNL for a season, which was great. I might apply there when I’m finished, or maybe Fallon, but I’m really crossing my fingers for an opening on one of the morning shows. I’m definitely more of a morning person than a night owl, I like to get up early, so that would workout nicely.”

“Harry, that is truly sick. You know they profile people like you,”

“Cop humor hey? I like it.” That was putting it lightly. Harry more than liked having Louis tease him.

“We’ve got to have something to make ourselves seem tolerable.”

They were winding down now, the last of Harry’s beer clinging onto the sides of the bottle with his final sip. As much as Harry wanted to stay longer and have Louis take his shirt off and do some pushups or something (he didn’t know what kind of workouts cops did but this was the path his mind had taken so who was he to change his own mind) he didn’t actually know what _this_ was.

“I should probably—

“Do you want to come back to my place for a drink?”

Okay, so maybe he did know what _this_ was.

In an interesting turn of events, Louis was the one who looked nervous when he didn’t answer right away. “Please feel free to stop me or pretend I didn’t say that if I am wildly off base here, and I will happily go on with my life harboring my secret shame of asking out an insanely gorgeous, yet uninterested guy.”

Harry was honestly halfway hard and damn near chewed the inside of his cheek off to stop himself from grinning like a crazy person. “No, I do not want to stop you, trust me, you should feel how interested I am,”

“Jesus.”

Harry was already regretting every single word he was about to say, but if he was going to go home with Louis and have him lick every inch of his body with the same effort he put into licking hot cheese off his fingers, he needed at least two days to prepare. “But, I do have to get home and finish up a couple of things so that I can be free sometime during the week to take you up on that offer, if it still stands?" 

Louis pushed up from the table with a pleased smile. “It does.” Harry followed suit, smiling down at his feet when Louis held the door open for him, waving him through. “And even if I don’t have time, I will make time, don’t worry about that.”

“Actually, my friend Ed, the red head from last night is playing a show on Tuesday if you want to come? Nothing special, just a pub in the east village,”

Harry gasped in surprise when Louis grabbed his hand and spun him around, pressing his back against the warm brick wall at the side of the building. He stood in front of him, trapping Harry in-between his arms. Partial push up fantasy unlocked. He leaned forward, his mouth inches from Harry's. “I definitely want to come.”

Harry swallowed thickly at the double entendre of it all. He searched Louis’ eyes, waiting anxiously for his next move.

Instead of kissing him, he stepped backwards, pressing his thumb into the indent of his dimple. “Let me know when you get home, okay?”

“Okay.”

He nodded and flagged down a cab, yanking the door open and sending Harry off with one more smile before disappearing down the street.

And for the second night in a row, Harry dreamily floated all the way home.

***

“Detective Tomlinson?”

Louis pressed save on his document, glancing up at their secretary Gina who was hovering in the doorway. “What’s up?”

He flicked his eyes down to the box in her hands, when a wild Liam appeared out of nowhere to confiscate it from her. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

“Some guy just dropped them off. Tall, curly hair, jean shorts,” Gina rattled off, sounding bored and already turning to leave.

Liam whipped his head at Louis, his face much too giddy for that of a thirty two year old man. “Harry brought you donuts? How did that happen?”

“Ooh, does Louis finally have a boyfriend?”

Louis slowly counted to ten in his mind. Special Agent Nick Grimshaw was already inserting his nose into places where it did not belong, no surprise there. “How is it that you’re already being annoying when you’ve only been here for two hours?”

“See, this attitude right here is why you’re not on the case,”

Louis stood up and shoved his chair back, ready to launch into a Nick fuelled tirade when Liam’s calming voice stopped him. “Now boys, let’s all get along, you know in case the Captain feels like popping in at any moment,” he opened the lid of the donuts and burst into a fit of giggles at the handpicked selection. “Oh my golly golly gosh,”

Nick got up to stand beside Liam, hands propped on his hips. He cocked his head to the side, examining the scene for himself. “Well, judging from the arrangement of these long johns and donut holes, I’d say he has something very specific on his mind,”

Louis strode over to hover on Liam’s other side, speechless again for the second time in his life. “I...we had dollar pizza and didn’t even kiss,”

Liam whistled. “Must have been some pizza,” he shut the lid, holding the box to his chest. “And let’s back up a minute, how exactly did you end up having pizza together?”

“I got some good intel,”

Nick sat on his desk, swinging his foot up to poke him in the thigh, “You didn’t stalk him, now did you Lewis?”

Louis slapped his foot away with a huff. “No, Nicholas I did not, an interested party helped me out.”

Liam’s face immediately fell. “What? Zayn didn’t even tell me! And you know he tells me everything, I can’t believe this!”

Louis pinched him on the cheek as he passed by him to gather up some files on his desk. “It wasn’t Zayn, no need to submit the divorce papers,”

“Oh thank god.” Liam swiftly dropped the topic of who set them up for a more important question. “So when’s the next date?" 

“Tomorrow.”

Nick waved a hand at the donuts, biting back a laugh. “I think we know what the plan is,”

Louis snapped his lap top shut, shoving it into his briefcase. “Alright, that’s my cue to go and work from home, because I’m not talking about this for the next day and a half,”

“Hey, that’s not fair!”

Louis knew that the smile on his face was way too cocky, but they deserved it. “I’m not on this case as everyone keeps reminding me, so technically I don’t have to be here,” he wiggled his fingers at Liam’s unimpressed face. “Toodles.”

...

Working from home actually turned out to be a godsend. He got a ton of work done without being distracted by Liam’s incessant need to show him multiple videos of baby elephants on YouTube, and just generally being irritated by Nick’s presence.

He was also distracted enough to keep his texts to Harry to a minimum, just sending a couple to let him know he was thinking about him and looking forward to Tuesday. Truthfully he wasn’t the best at texting, he was too wordy and emoji illiterate. Harry on the other hand was a little too good with emojis, Louis certainly didn’t think all the eggplants meant he was jonesing for some eggplant parmesan.  

It wasn’t sexting by any means, but it was enough to make Louis pull on the collar of his shirt one or two times.

But he wouldn’t have to wave off any impure thoughts much longer, because it was finally Tuesday and he was going to see Mr. Eggplant in the flesh.

Harry too.

He wiped his clammy hands on his jeans one more time before grabbing the handle of the door. Louis hoped he looked as cool as he thought he attempted to look, and not like a thirty three year old police officer trying to fit in with young, hip artist types. But hey, his jeans were ripped due to an unfortunate mishap with an attempted bank robbery (they ran, he had made the mistake of wearing skinny jeans to work that day), and he had been wearing Vans long before they were cool again, so ha. He laughed in the face of fashion.

Anyways.

The pub was a bit subdued when he stepped in, making Harry very easy to spot. The weather was kind of mild that day so he had traded his jean shorts for a pair of loose fitting blue jeans he had cuffed a few times at the ankle, showing off a pair of faded pink high tops that went with the faded red lips of his vintage Rolling Stones t-shirt. His hair was curling wildly around his head, the humidity making it extra kinky, though some of that was caused by Harry repeatedly running his hands through it.

Louis couldn’t recall a time where he’d ever wanted to throw someone down on the nearest surface and ravish them, that was until he’d seen Harry in this moment. And almost as if he could sense Louis mentally undressing him, he turned his head to the side and met his eyes with a smile.

He said his farewells to the group he was chatting to and sashayed over to Louis, shaking a pitcher of margaritas at him, “Hiya, you made it! Drink?”

Louis laughed, peering in at the half empty lime concoction. “How many of those have you had?”

Harry tapped a finger on his lips, contemplating. “Enough.”

Louis reached up and pressed his thumb into that damn dimple again. Apparently this was something he could not resist. “And no, I’m good. They’re all yours cutie.”

Harry’s smile turned sweet and soft. “Ed calls me that too,”

“Is that so,” Louis moved his finger up to bop Harry on the nose. “Well, if the shoe fits,”

Harry stabbed his straw into a lime with a disgruntled pout, “I’d much rather you think I’m sexy than cute.”

“You’re a frustrating mix of both, don’t worry.”

“Frustrating hey? That’s interesting,”

“Very.” Louis touched a hand to his hip, nodding over to the next room, “Alright, let’s go see the man of the hour.”

Harry spun around, sloshing some of his drink onto the floor. Louis sidestepped it and followed behind him, squeezing his hands into fists to stop himself from slipping them up the back of Harry’s shirt. Or down the back of his jeans.

Because Louis was a gentleman. Or something.

Ed was just situating himself on a stool with his guitar when they entered the room. They hung towards the back and Harry brought his fingers up to his mouth to whistle and cheer. Ed lifted a hand to peer into the small crowd, shaking his head when he finally spotted Harry, but the all-knowing, happy grin was definitely for Louis.

“Thank you Harry. That’s my biggest fan back there, besides my incredible wife who sadly couldn’t be with us tonight, but she did say I was allowed to call you all my lovers,” the crowd laughed, as Harry gave another whistle. “So, hello my lovers, I’m Ed, and this is ‘Give Me Love’. I hope you enjoy it.”

Louis watched in amazement, swaying his head side to side as Ed crooned through the song like some kind of red headed angel, while Harry kept sneaking looks at him, smiling to himself every time their elbows brushed against one another.

Louis leaned closer to Harry, pointing towards the stage. “I did not expect that voice to come out of him, I swear it’s like butter,”

“Yeah, he’s amazing. Sometimes I can't believe he only does this for fun.”

Louis raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Really? He’s never done a demo or anything?”

Harry shrugged. “I’m not sure to be honest, but he’s happy at the shop. Ed is probably the easiest going, most content person I know.”

“He should start singing at the shop, I’d probably never leave.”

“Oh yeah, is Ed that much of a draw for you?”

Louis faced him, slowly trailing his eyes all the way down to Harry’s toes and back again. “No, it’s the day dream I keep having about covering your ass in that donut glaze and licking it off. Among other things.”

Harry’s empty pitcher fell to the ground with a thud. Louis started to bend down to pick it up, but was promptly yanked up out of the room and down a hallway.

“Harry, what are you—

He was suddenly shoved in the corner of a photo booth, followed by a lap full of Harry.

“I guess we’re not watching the rest of the show then?”

Harry glared down at him. “Seriously?”

“Is that a no to a picture as well?” Louis couldn’t help it, he was too amused by the angry kitten faces he was cajoling out of Harry.

“You really want to take a picture right now?”

“Yup.”

Harry twisted back around and punched his finger into the start button, throwing up peace sign for the first one while Louis gazed up at him in awe, and bent down to slide his lips against Louis’ for the second.

Louis dropped his mouth open, welcoming Harry’s warm tongue. He brought a hand up to his jaw, titling his head to deepen their kiss, pulling away briefly to look into Harry’s hazy green eyes before diving back in again.

Harry squeezed his thighs around Louis’, reaching blindly between them to find Louis’ other hand so he could move it to his ass. Louis moaned low in his throat, seemingly unable to process the fact that he was finally able to touch Harry in all the ways he dreamed possible.

He dug his fingers in, cupping his ass and pushing him closer, grinding up slowly when Harry pulled away and threw his neck back, “Oh fuck, Louis—

“Yeah, we should—

As soon as the word ‘go’ attempted to leave his lips, his phone started to buzz in his pocket.

“Ah fuck, I have to get that,” he grumbled with an infinite amount of regret.

Harry stilled in his lap, shifting up on his hunches so Louis could pull out his phone and simultaneously have his eyeballs combust at the image Harry just painted of what he would look like riding him.

He tapped on the screen, gritting his teeth as he read the message from Liam.

   - emergency meeting, u gotta be here in 20

Louis quickly did the math. An eight minute cab ride, two minutes to scramble into the building and ten more minutes of Harry. He pulled him back in by his shirt, drawing his tongue along the collarbone he just exposed.

“Sorry love, I have to run, but I have ten more minutes, so let’s make them count.”

“I literally only need like two, please, please, please can you get me off?  You don’t even want to know how long it’s been,”

Louis nodded, “Yeah, yeah, whatever you need.” He sucked on Harry’s bottom lip, fumbling with the zipper on his jeans. He definitely didn’t think about that fact that he was kind of committing a crime, because, “Holy shit, you have a beautiful dick,”

Harry half laughed, half moaned into the side of his neck. “Thank you… oh, god, yeah, keep doing, WHOA, that, yes, THAT!”

While Louis worked Harry up to his climax, he worked up at least three different scenarios to explain to Captain Corden as to why he got caught having sex in a student pub on the lower east side.

Harry spilled over his fist moments later and brought his hand up to his mouth, licking every single drop as if it were an old fashioned glazed donut. Louis was totally going to be fine going back to work with that ingrained into his mind. Totally, totally fine.

Harry slumped forward, breathing out a satisfied sigh. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Louis pat the sides of his thighs, once again filled with regret. “And I am truly sorry to have to leave right after we had an amazing moment, but, duty calls.”

Harry shuffled off his lap and pushed the curtain aside, stumbling out of the booth on shaky legs. Louis reached out to steady him, and turned him so his back was up against the front of the booth. He leaned up on his toes and laid a couple of hard kisses on his lips. “I promise I will make this up to you, in fact, tell Ed you’re going to need a whole weekend off because I plan on fucking you for three days straight,”

Harry laughed, pushing his face away, “Go to work, you goof.”

Louis knocked his hand away, kissing him three more times. “I’m serious Harry. Someone’s going to have to pry my tongue out of your ass by the end of it,”

Harry giggled, poking him in the stomach. “Goooo,”

“Alright, alright, I’m going,” he glanced down at his phone, noting another unread message from Liam. “Fuck, I’m so late.” He kissed Harry again before backing away. “I’m going.”

Except that he hesitated at the end of the hall and doubled back to plant three more kisses on a surprised Harry’s face. “Fuck you are so cute, even your orgasm face is cute, ah, okay,” he took one last, longing look at him and shook his head. “Bye.”

Harry pulled him into a hug, sliding a hand into his back pocket and squeezed. That didn’t help his cause at all.

“Bye.”

...

While Louis was getting the third degree for being ten minutes late, he pat the back of his jeans to check if his wallet was there, because late nights at the office meant excessive amounts of caffeine and pizza.

His fingers slid past something unfamiliar, and he pulled it out only to have a smile quickly spread across his face. There in his hands were half the photo booth pictures, and what he had suspected about his face in them had been right. He was looking at Harry like he was from a different planet.

He opened his wallet and placed them between his business cards for safe keeping, quickly forgetting about it once Nick opened up his huge mouth.

“I know you’re wondering why you’re all here. There’s been another homicide and after going through some of the old cases on Detective Tomlinson’s desk, we’ve come up with some parallels. So,”

Louis raised an eyebrow, a smug grin forming around his lips.

“Welcome back to the team, Detective.

***

Harry stood at the corner of Baxter and Canal patiently waiting for the light to change, when a slight breeze in the air drew his attention from the poster riddled street post. There, wisping down the sidewalk were a pair of crisp orange leaves, hinting to the first signs of fall.

It was hard to believe that the remainder of summer had literally come and gone in what seemed like mere seconds, but between school and pining after Louis, he had a lot to occupy his time. Okay, so he wasn’t technically pining after Louis, because both parties were _very_ interested, he just hadn’t been able to see as much of Louis’ interest as he would have liked due to his increased workload after being promoted to second in command on the bodega case.

Despite their opposing schedules, Louis always made an effort to see Harry every time he was at work, even if it was for five minutes and all it resulted in were free donuts and a quick peck on the lips. They had made two attempts at phone sex, and even though Louis fell asleep halfway through both times, he still managed to finish because Harry was that good on the phone, so he still counted it as a success.

And now that he had Louis on the mind, he kind of really wanted to see him. Harry hadn’t visited him at work before, aside from dropping treats off at the front desk, so he figured there was no time like the present seeing as it was sort of on his way home.

He quickly walked the two blocks to the precinct, though once he was outside of it he realized that he didn’t actually know if Louis was even in the building. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, bringing up Louis’ contact, when a friendly voice had him tearing his eyes away from the last picture Louis had sent him in all his weeks’ old, bearded glory.

“Harry! Here for a visit?”

He pocketed his phone, meeting Liam’s tired, crinkled eyes. “Hey! Yeah, I was just at the Whiskey with Ed and thought I’d pop in on my way home. Is he in there?”

Liam nodded, waving him over. “Yep, it’s pretty quiet right now. Come on, I’ll buzz you up,”

Harry jogged up the steps, meeting Liam at the door he held open with his shoulder. “Are you sure it’s okay? I know you guys are busy, I don’t want to get in the way,”

“A lot of the task force have taken a couple of hours off to recharge, it’s no trouble at all, I promise.”

Harry noted the exhaustion in Liam’s features, his lips pulling into a frown. “How are you by the way? I had coffee with Zayn the other day and he said he barely remembers what you look like,”

Liam rolled his eyes, a fond smile melting away some of the fine, tired lines. “He’s been saying that since I was in the academy, you’re just a new person that he gets to complain to, do not let him trick you into feeling sorry for him. And I’m fine, thank you for asking though.” Liam squeezed his shoulder, guiding him towards the elevators where he swiped his key card. “Take this up to the fourth floor and it will be the first door when you get off,”

“Cool, thanks.”

“Tell Lou I’ll be about an hour, I’m going to get a run in and then I’ll swing by the dumpling place Zayn cried over on the way back. He’ll know what I mean.”

Harry laughed. “Alright. Nice to you see you again Liam,”

“You too Harry, have a good night!”

The heavy silver doors shut and Harry bounced on his feet nervously. He felt slightly scandalous being here after hours, though he wasn’t quite sure why, maybe it had something to do with the proximity to handcuffs. The bell signaled his arrival and when he stepped out Liam had been right, it was eerily quiet.  

Harry crossed the short distance to the open office door, tapping on the frame to announce his arrival. “Knock, knock,”

Louis stepped out from behind a stack of cardboard boxes, the pen dropping out of his mouth as the shock registered over his face. “Harry? Please tell me this isn’t a figment of my imagination,”

He laughed and moved towards Louis, picking the pen up from the floor to slip into the pocket of his dress shirt. “Nope, all real. Liam let me in, I hope that’s okay? I was on my way home and wanted to say hi,”

Louis slipped his fingers into the front pocket of his jeans, pulling him in closer. “Hi,”

Harry smoothed his hands up Louis’ arms, resting them on his shoulders. “Hi yourself. Oh, and Liam told me to pass along that he was going for a run and that he’s getting dumplings,”

“Liam’s a bloody liar. He hasn’t gone for a run in five years, he’s going home to have sex with Zayn. Don’t believe a word either of them say.”

“Damn, they are both so sneaky in the same ways. That’s couple goals right there,”

Louis hummed his agreement. “Indeed it is.”

Harry thumbed at the dark purple bruising underneath his eyes. “You look exhausted,”

“Frankly I’m at the point where I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t,” he brought Harry’s thumb up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to it. “When this is all said and done I’m taking you to my favorite bed and breakfast upstate,”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Harry felt his heart thump that much harder at the fact that Louis was already planning to spend his first free weekend, possibly months from now, with Harry. He licked his lips, tucking a finger underneath the leather holster strapped to Louis’ chest. “You know, this is really working for me,”

Louis drew his eyebrows up. “Is that so?”

“Yeah, you look, like,” Harry swallowed thickly. “Authoritative. Like you’d boss me around or something,”

Louis squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing at his temples, “Harry, I do not have the mental capacity for you to continue that train of thought without for lack of a better term, jizzing in my pants.”

Harry snorted out a laugh, slapping a hand over his mouth to compose himself. “Is it weird that I sang that in Andy Samberg’s voice in my head?”

“I honestly don’t know, I’m still focused on the words ‘bossing around’”

Harry would be lying if he claimed he wasn’t having the same issue and he was the one who said it. He peered over Louis’ shoulder, considering the logistics for the idea formulating in his head. “Do you have a room that locks around here?”

Louis looked at him warily. “Why,”

“I have a blowjob related proposition for you,”

“Do you have a law enforcement committing public indecency crimes kink that I don’t know about?”

Harry reached over and palmed over the front of Louis’ dress pants, giving him a squeeze. “I guess you do now.”

Louis slapped his hands away with a laugh, “Very funny.” He took his hand back a second later, a determined look set on his face. “File room,”

Harry followed his lead and dropped straight down to his knees once Louis shut and locked the door behind him. He crawled over to sit at Louis’ feet, deft fingers easing down the zipper of his pants, tugging them and his boxer briefs down to his thighs in one full sweep. “Fuck, you’re so hard already,”

Harry leaned forward to suck him down, smirking around his cock when Louis gasped. “It’s those fucking, ah, shorts,” Louis clutched onto the nearest file cabinet to steady himself when he hit the back of Harry’s throat. “Your thighs, god, I, want to suffocate myself between them.”

He slid off with a pop, chuckling, “I’m not even wearing shorts,”

“Who cares, let me have this.”

Harry teased his tongue around the head of his cock, stroking Louis through another full body convulsion. “What else have you been thinking about?”

He slowly took him in again, a satisfied hum rumbling through Louis’ chest. “That beautiful dick of yours, in me, on me, fuck it should be in the Macy’s Day Parade,”

Harry pulled off again, pressing the heel of his palm to front of his jeans to offer himself some relief. “If we’re sharing right now, then I am extremely invested in your fingers. They’re rough but also kind of dainty and honestly sometimes I close my eyes and imagine you hovering over me, biting down on my neck as you fuck them so deep inside my I forget my own name, and—

“Ah, ah _fuck_...oh my god, Harry, fuck I am so sorry!”

Harry sat back on his heels, wiping a palm across his cheek, laughing in disbelief. “You just came on my face!”

Louis crouched down next to him, handing him a napkin he had stashed in his pocket. “I know, and I cannot stress enough how sorry I am. Jesus between this and the phone sex fiasco I’m surprised you still want to talk to me,”

Harry leaned over to place a kiss on the side of his mouth, “Don’t worry, I’m into it. I just need a little warning next time.”

Louis placed his hands on his thighs, pushing back up to his feet. He held a hand down to Harry, shaking his head, “It’s nice of you to think that happened on purpose, but I’m happy to know you’re okay with it. I’d never want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable,”

Harry hopped up to his feet, immediately wrapping Louis into hug. He nosed along the line of his neck, whispering low in his ear, “Lou, there’s not much I wouldn’t let you do to me.”

He immediately felt Louis stiffen. In more ways than one. “Yeah, you need to go home,” Louis reached around his back to unlock the door, pinching his ass as he pushed him out of it.

Harry let out a yelp, which died in his throat when he came face to face with a burly, stony faced man he could only assume was Louis’ boss.

“Oh, hello…I’m Harry,” he thought about waving but clasped his hands in front of him instead. Probably a wise choice.

“Hello Harry,” he crossed his arms, titling his head over at Louis. “Detective?”

“Yes Captain?”

“Does Harry belong in the file room?”

Louis shook his head, bumping Harry’s hip towards the safety of the hallway outside their office doors. “No, no he does not, he was just leaving,”

“I think that’s best.” He finally cracked the tiniest of smiles, only directing it at Harry. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again Harry. Just make sure it’s during office hours next time.”

Harry nodded as he shuffled backwards towards where he hoped the elevator was, “Absolutely, yes sir.”

He was once again bouncing nervously on his feet, willing the doors to open and swallow him whole. Unfortunately, he could still hear everything coming out of their office. 

“Oh and one more thing Detective,”

“Yes?”

“Your flies undone.”

...

And that was the first and last time Harry visited Louis at work.

***

Louis jolted wide awake to the high pitched sound of his phone ringing. He blinked his eyes against the hazy grey light filtering into his bedroom, feeling like he’d only just closed his eyes. When he turned to see the four thirty glowing on the clock on his bedside table he released he basically had.  
  
He fumbled for his phone, answering it without checking the call display. “This is Tomlinson,”  
  
“Lou?”  
  
He sat up straight, the hairs on the back of his neck rising in a cop like spidey sense. “Harry? What’s wrong?”  
  
He strained to listen as Harry blew out a shaky breath. “Before I start, I need you to calm down,”  
  
Louis swung his legs down to the floor, reaching for the switch on his lamp. “Harry, telling me to calm down has the exact opposite effect. Please just tell if you’re okay?”  
  
“Yeah. Yes. I’m okay.”  
  
“Good. Okay.” Louis picked up the jeans he had discarded on the ground two hours prior, sliding them up over his legs. “Now tell me what happened,”  
  
He heard the hesitation in his voice but he pressed on. “I couldn’t sleep so I decided to go in to work early, and it was dumb, I was dumb, I shouldn’t have worn that watch—  
  
“Harry,”  
  
“And, well…I was mugged.”  
  
Louis’ mind went blank, a fit of rage seething through his veins. He clenched a fist at his side as the t-shirt he just tugged on fell against his puffing chest. “Harry! You said you were fine!” He stormed over to his dresser, shoving his keys and wallet in his jeans.  
  
“I am! I mean... _I am_. I’m fine. I just feel stupid, I should know better,”  
  
Louis shrugged his NYPD windbreaker on, knowing he’d need it to bribe a cabbie to get him to Harry in record time. “Harry, did they have a gun?”  
  
“You keep saying my name like you’re mad at me,”  
  
So that was a yes to the gun. Louis pinched the bridge his nose, letting out a strangled sigh. “I’m not mad at you love, but I am really fucking mad that some asshole held a gun to my boyfriend’s head,” he punched the elevator button an excessive amount of times, checking his watch. “Where are you now?”  
  
“I’m with Ed, at the shop. I called you first because didn’t know what else to do. I think I was in shock. Is that okay?”  
  
Louis could picture him worrying at his bottom lip, those lovely green eyes creased with stress. He resisted the urge to punch a wall and instead ran into the street frantically searching for a cab. “I’ll call it in, don’t worry about it. Just stay right there, alright? I’ll be there in five,”  
  
“Thank you, Lou. I’m sorry.”  
  
“Harry, do not apologize, I swear to god.” His eyes lit up when he spotted a marked car across the street. “Five. Minutes,”  
  
He hung up and ran across the street, tapping on the window and flashing his badge. “Officers, I’m with the 5th precinct and I really need to get to Essex and Grand in five minutes,”  
  
They gave each other a look that said this guy was crazy to think they’ll get there under ten minutes but simply nodded. “Sure, hop in.”  
  
Louis jiggled his leg the entire seven minutes it took them to get there, mumbling out a thank you as he tore open the door and jumped out of the car, ignoring their eye roll at the sign. Okay, so he just asked two cops to deliver another cop to a donut shop. He could see the cliched humor in it.  
  
He flung the door open and barely registered the look of relief on Harry’s face when he yanked him into his arms. He squeezed him against his chest, petting the springy curls at the nape of his neck. “You scared the shit out of me,”  
  
Harry tucked his nose into his neck, squeezing him back. “I’m fine Lou, I promise.”  
  
“I know you are,” Louis stepped back, cupping a hand to the side of his face. “But you don’t see the things I do out there. I’m just really fucking glad you’re here, in one piece. Do you get that?”  
  
Harry finally seemed to understand as he picked up on Louis’ underlying fear. He nodded down at his feet, “I get it.” He grasped Louis’ hand, linking their fingers in a death like grip. “Thank you for coming,”  
  
“Thank me when I find your watch and put these fuckers in jail.”  
  
Harry sighed, pushing a hand through his curls that were damp from the early morning showers. “It’s just a watch, Lou,”  
  
“Maybe, but it’s _your_ watch.” He took his phone out his pocket, pointing down at it. “I’m going to call the station and get someone down here to take your statement,” he spotted a figure in the corner of his eye and turned to give Ed a thin lipped smile, “Oh, hey Ed, you alright?”  
  
Ed folded his arms over his chest, attempting his best tough guy look. “I’m ready to tune someone up if you need me,”  
  
Louis finally laughed, a real from the gut laugh, shaking his head. “I appreciate the offer, but no, we’ll go the legal route this time.” He pulled his wallet out, passing it over to Ed, “Do you mind giving Liam a call? His business cards in there, I’m just getting on the line to arrange for someone to come and talk to Harry. If you don’t get Liam, try Zayn, he’s in there too,”  
  
“What am I telling them?”  
  
“Just fill them in on what happened and that I’ll call Liam in a bit,” Louis glanced at Harry, who was starting to show some signs of fatigue. “And that I’ll need him to send me some files, I’m going to work from home today. The team can call my cell if they need me.”  
  
Ed brought his hand up to his forehead in a salute, “Aye, aye captain.”  
  
“Thanks.” He covered the bottom of his phone, meeting Harry’s eyes. “After we’re done I’m taking you back to my place,” when Harry started to open his mouth he held up a finger. “It isn’t up for debate.”  
  
“You know, I thought I wanted you to boss me around, but now I’m not so sure,”  
  
Louis turned his back when the operator came back on the line to patch him through, but he could sense Harry’s smile radiating all the way through him.  
  
...  
  
Hearing Harry recount the mugging while giving his statement was enough to put Louis’ blood pressure through the roof, so it had been a wise decision to stay away from the office for a day, especially since they were ramping up to execute some search warrants over the next couple of days and everyone was running around like a chicken with their head cutoff.

His bed and breakfast weekend might have to be extended into a week long jaunt, because as much as he wanted to fuck Harry for three days straight, he was probably going to need three days of sleep before he would be able to logically make that happen.

After chatting to Liam and reassuring him that he was not going to go all Punisher vigilante, they piled into a patrol car so they could get a lift home. Harry had been mostly subdued on the way back to Louis’ aside from the brief moment of giddiness he expressed about riding in the back of a police car.

He remained quiet the rest of the afternoon, only offering a faint smile and a head shake when Louis tried to feed him. Louis knew that he needed to give him space, so he hunkered down in his office to catch up on the sixty some odd emails he has accumulated that morning and left Harry on the couch with a cup of tea, his best faux fur blanket and hours of Brooklyn 99 (the most accurate policing show in Louis’ opinion).  
  
It wasn’t until two hours later that the shuffling of feet and a quiet cough had Louis stopping to pause his fingers on the keyboard.  
  
“I don’t think I’m okay,”  
  
Louis shut the lid on his laptop, moving the stack of papers in front of him to the side of his desk. He had been expecting this. It usually took a couple of hours for the adrenaline to leave the system. That’s when the shock truly settled in.

“Alright love.”  
  
Louis eased out of his chair, making his way to Harry in mere seconds to pick him up and carry him to his room. Harry wrapped his long legs around his waist, closing his eyes and resting his head down on Louis’ shoulder.  
  
He placed Harry down in the middle of his rumpled sheets, shimmying the joggers he had loaned him down his pale, creamy hips. He nosed through the fuzzy hair above the waist of his briefs, trailing a finger up the inside of his thigh.  
  
“I’m going to eat you out for bit, okay?”  
  
Harry’s breath hitched in his throat, a quiet ‘okay’ stuttering out.  
  
Louis pulled his briefs away, flicking his tongue along the wet head of Harry’s cock. “And then I’m going to fuck you for a bit, okay?”  
  
Harry arched off the bed when Louis ghosted a finger down the crack of his ass, gasping and letting out a breathy sigh. “Is this your version of to serve and protect?”  
  
“Shut up Harry.”  
  
But they both laughed, and Louis finally felt the day’s tension quietly wash away.  
  
***  
  
Three months.  
  
That was how long it had taken for Louis to convince Harry to move in with him full time. Truthfully ever since the mugging he had felt uneasy about going back home, and Louis definitely wasn’t thrilled about him going home unless it was to pick up more things to leave at his own place.

So. He moved in.  
  
They were still on opposite schedules, though it would somewhat be coming to an end now that Louis and his team had a huge break in their case. It was nice that he’d grown closer to Zayn, having someone who understood the perils of shift work and also enjoyed a smooth Pinot Noir and reruns of the Housewives of Beverly Hills was a plus in his books.  
  
He may never get used to Louis’ schedule, but he’d never get tired of him slipping in between the sheets and slipping into him no matter what time of day it was.  
  
Louis was also notoriously late, though usually by no fault of his own, but that still didn’t stop Harry from checking the time on his phone in case a miracle happened.  
  
“I told you,” Louis plucked the phone out of his hand, slipping it into his jacket pocket while smacking a kiss on his cheek, “I’d be on time,”  
  
Harry rubbed his cheek, noting that Louis was clean shaven and wearing a dove grey knit sweater he had gotten him for his birthday with the sleeves rolled up, exposing his suspiciously tanned forearms. Harry knew better than to ask about that though.  
  
“Lou, you haven’t been on time once since we’ve met.”  
  
He handed Harry a Stella, shrugging indifferently, “Ed asked me to be on time, so I am.”  
  
Harry sipped on his beer, eyeing him up, “What’s he got on you? Is it the public indecency?”  
  
“Some things, my love, are meant to remain a mystery.” He kissed Harry a bit longer and a bit more risqué than he usually would in public, but he knew it was a tactical move to stop Harry from asking any more questions. And he was happy to oblige.  
  
“Hello lovers,”  
  
The crowd cheered and Harry busted out his obnoxious whistle. It was a tradition now after all.

“Alright, so tonight we’ve got some oldies, some covers, and whatever else I feel like singing because it’s my show and I do what I want. But first I want to start you off with a new song. I wrote it for my friends. They’ll know who they are.” He found Harry’s eyes in the crowd, sending him a kiss and a wink.

He started to strum and sing and Harry bopped along to the beat, even though he was slightly miffed that Ed had written a song for some alleged friend that wasn’t him.

Once he hit the chorus, Louis’ mouth hung open, a surprised laugh stumbling out. “Oh my god this is about us,”  
  
“What?”  
  
Louis’ hand covered his face as he turned towards Harry. He dragged it down slowly, an embarrassed smile appearing in its wake. “I gave him my wallet the morning of the mugging and…I have those pictures from the photo booth in there,”  
  
Harry poked a teasing finger into his chest. “Louuu, you’re such a sap,”  
  
He linked a finger around Harry’s, shrugging, “Maybe. But I don’t always get to see you as much as I’d like to, so it’s nice to have you close.”  
  
Harry’s eyes softened. “I thought that’s what the tattoo was for,”  
  
Louis glanced down at the dagger he’d gotten that past November, which coincided with the rose Harry had on his own arm. “No. That’s because I love you.”

“I love you too,” Harry bent down to kiss him, smiling against his lips, “A disgusting amount in fact.”  
  
They turned their attention back to Ed for the last few verses, keeping their hands joined between them.  
  
“Maybe this will be the one that makes him famous,”  
  
Louis squeezed his hand and Harry felt his warmth wrap around every inch of his heart.  
  
“Maybe.”  
  
...  
  
“So you can keep me  
Inside the pocket of your ripped jeans  
Holding me closer 'til our eyes meet  
You won't ever be alone, wait for me to come home”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no knowledge of the inner workings of the NYPD, the FBI or Tisch, this is all a work of fiction, but Doughnut Plant is real and the 5th precinct is in fact in Chinatown! 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed the read :)


End file.
